Atlantic Free Press - Abu-Jamal Hearing Date Set by Third Circuit Court of Appeals

March 24, 2007 
 
 Pennsylvania
 
 Abu-Jamal Hearing Date Set by Third Circuit Court of Appeals 
 
 Dave Lindorff, Atlantic Free Press
 
 Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelpia journalist and former Black Panther
 activist who has been on Pennsylvania's death row since 1982, will finally
 have his appeal of his conviction heard by a three-judge panel of the Third
 Circuit Court of Appeals, which set a date of May 17. 
 
 At that session, Abu-Jamal will argue that his original trial for the 1981
 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally flawed because of
 racial bias by the prosecutor in jury selection. He will argue that his
 conviction by that jury was improper because the prosecutor improperly was
 permitted to lessen jurors' sense of responsibility by assuring them that
 whatever they decided, the defendant would get "appeal after appeal" and so
 their decision "would not be final." He will also argue that his effort to
 appeal his conviction was damaged because his post-conviction relief act
 hearing was presided over by a judge who was clearly biased in favor of the
 district attorney.
 
 The hearing will also hear a claim by the district attorney that Abu-Jamal's
 death sentence - lifted by a Federal Judge in 2001--should be reinstated.
 The federal district court had ruled that Abu-Jamal's sentence had been
 arrived at by a jury that was given improper and confusing instructions by
 Judge Albert Sabo, and that their sentencing form itself was misleading. 
 
 Meanwhile, it has been learned that the Philadelphia District Attorneys
 Office earlier this month attempted unsuccessfully to have the entire Third
 Circuit Court--one of the more liberal appeals courts in the nation--recused
 from hearing Abu-Jamal's appeal on the grounds that Abu-Jamal's claim of
 jury selection bias was charging then DA Ed Rendell (now Pennsylvania's
 governor), with having deliberately violated the law. Rendel's wife,
 Marjorie, is one of the appeals court judges in the Third Circuit. 
 
 Abu-Jamal's attorney Robert R. Bryan, objecting to the DA's effort, noted
 that there was no claim of illegality on the governor's part, but rather on
 the part of the prosecutor in the case, Joseph McGill. It is alleged that a
 succession of Philadelphia DA's encouraged their prosecutors to remove as
 many blacks as possible from capital juries, and documentary evidence has
 been submitted to show that this was done, both by the DA's office over all,
 and by assistant DA McGill in his own capital cases. During jury selection
 for Abu-Jamal's trial, 11 black potential jurors who had all agreed they
 could vote for a death penalty, were removed by McGill using his available
 peremptory challenges (meaning he did not have to give a reason for his
 action). 
 
 In a letter to the DA's office stating that the request to have all the
 circuit's judges recused from hearing the case had been rejected, the clerk
 of the court said that such a request would have to be made not as a letter,
 but in the form of a formal motion. In a scolding tone, the letter notes
 that such a motion "must be in proper form, i.e. an original and three
 copies and certificate of service." 
 
 "It must have been humiliating for the opposition" to receive such a note,
 comments attorney Bryan. He notes that to date, the DA has "not had the
 guts" to make such a formal motion, adding, "We'll see." 
 
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 Source : Atlantic Free Press
 
 http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1236/81/

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